Although Euro 2012 is still to come, with the domestic football season now over I'm going to provide some facts and stats about talkSPORT's football commentaries over the whole of the 2011/12 campaign.
I have listed below all of the presenting, commentary and pitchside reporting details from the 86 matches talkSPORT have provided commentary on in 2011/12. These matches included 61 Premier League commentaries (30 on Sundays prior to 4pm, 22 on Saturdays at 5.30pm, 8 on Wednesday nights and 1 on a Friday night with 3 of their 64 match allocation left over), 18 Champions League games, 3 Europa League fixtures, the Carling Cup Final and all three Football League Play-Off Finals.
As always there are a few caveats to be stated before I launch into the stats. I'm counting every fixture covered by talkSPORT which can reasonably be considered as a commentary game due to the rights they hold and the amount of coverage the match in question received. Therefore I'm counting today's extended coverage of the League Two Play-Off Final as a commentary; however their extended coverage of Manchester City v Queens Park Rangers on the final day of the Premier League season isn't being counted as officially they didn't possess any commentary rights to that game. The midweek fixture between Bolton Wanderers and Tottenham Hotspur, which they did about 20 minutes of commentary from around that night's main feature of Chelsea v Newcastle United, will count as a commentary; but Swansea City v Manchester City - a game that took place one Sunday at the same time as their main game of Manchester United v West Bromwich Albion, at the end of which they crossed over to Roger Hughes at the Liberty Stadium for him to literally call the final 30 seconds of stoppage time - will not. Sorry Roger.
Here goes then...
Presenters:
Adrian Durham - 27 games
Georgie Bingham - 20
Mark Saggers - 16
Alan Brazil - 12
Ray Stubbs - 9
Ian Danter - 2
Commentators:
Sam Matterface - 73
Nigel Pearson - 9
Ian Danter - 2
Andrew McKenna - 1
John Roder - 1
Co-commentators:
Stan Collymore - 62
Alvin Martin - 12
Andy Gray - 7
Ray Houghton - 3
Ray Parlour - 1
Bobby Gould - 1
Pitchside Reporters:
Dom McGuinness - 10
Ian Abrahams - 8
Graham Courtney - 8
Tony Incenzo - 6
Graham Beecroft - 5
Simon Humphreys - 4
Dave Rowe - 4
Ian Danter - 3
Roger Hughes - 3
Nigel Pearson - 3
Kev Lawrence - 2
Andrew McKenna - 2
Geoff Peters - 2
Mike Bovill - 1
Elliot Cook - 1
Grahame Lloyd - 1
24 commentary games did not have pitchside reporters, these being all 21 Champions League and Europa League matches they covered this season, the League Two Play-Off Final plus two Premier League fixtures - their secondary pick of Bolton Wanderers v Tottenham Hotspur during the final Wednesday matchround in May and the Arsenal v Fulham Saturday 5.30pm game in November. For those keeping count, that brings the total up to 63 as both Graham Beecroft and Roger Hughes were at pitchside for the Carling Cup Final.
Not much change from the stats I produced last year when you consider that talkSPORT covered seven less games than they did in 2010/11. Stan Collymore co-commentated on 11 less games than he did the previous season with Sam Matterface doing only a couple fewer. The biggest increase/reduction was for Mark Saggers: he only hosted 16 games this year after anchoring 31 in 2010/11, this mainly being down to his lengthy absence at the Rugby World Cup in the autumn.
Some stats specifically for Sunday Exclusive: these being for the presenters and studio pundits used on the 31 live games broadcast on this programme over the course of the season, as opposed to when it has been a round table discussion programme with no commentary game.
Sunday Exclusive Presenters:
Georgie Bingham - 14
Alan Brazil - 12
Adrian Durham - 3
Ian Danter - 2
Sunday Exclusive Pundits:
Ray Houghton - 8
Alvin Martin - 6
Micky Quinn - 3
Tony Cascarino - 2
Ray Parlour - 2
Matt Holland - 1
9 Sunday Exclusive games didn't have studio pundits with the co-commentators doubling up as the experts (Stan Collymore on 6 occasions, Alvin Martin 3 times). This mostly happened on 4 of the 5 occasions when they had double headers of Sunday commentaries, although Micky Quinn joined Adrian Durham for both games of a two match programme in October. On Carling Cup Final day, Georgie Bingham presented from Wembley with Ray Parlour doing punditry on the North London derby from the Emirates during coverage of the first game only. This was the only edition of Sunday Exclusive that was presented on-site this season. Just to clarify I'm tallying up games covered rather than shows (thus Bingham hosted two games that day). The League Two Play-Off Final isn't counted here as that was broadcast under the All Sports Sunday and Howzat banners.
There was a significant mid-season change in the stewardship of Sunday Exclusive at the turn of the year. Alan Brazil presented his 12th and final live game at the end of December, with Georgie Bingham presenting her first live game on the station on New Year's Day, taking over as the regular presenter of Sunday Exclusive from there on in. In terms of who presented live games in the various other timeslots, Adrian Durham presented all bar one of the 22 Premier League Live games (this being coverage of Tottenham Hotspur v Newcastle United in February which was hosted by Bingham), Ray Stubbs and Mark Saggers anchored 9 Champions League commentaries each, with hosting duties for weeknight Premier League matches divided out between Saggers (7) and Bingham (2).
talkSPORT's coverage of the five finals they had commentary rights to was as follows:
Carling Cup Final - Georgie Bingham presented from Wembley Stadium, Nigel Pearson and Stan Collymore commentated with Graham Beecroft and Roger Hughes at pitchside.
Champions League Final - Mark Saggers presented from the Allianz Arena, Sam Matterface and Andy Gray commentated.
Championship Play-Off Final - Adrian Durham presented alongside Ray Parlour from Wembley Stadium, Nigel Pearson and Stan Collymore commentated with Ian Abrahams at pitchside.
League One Play-Off Final - Adrian Durham presented alongside Matt Holland from the studio, Sam Matterface and Alvin Martin commentated with Ian Abrahams at pitchside.
League Two Play-Off Final - Georgie Bingham and John Cross (first half) then Ronnie Irani and Gareth Batty (second half) presented coverage from the studio, Ian Danter and Alvin Martin provided extended updates.
For the FA Cup Final, Ian Danter presented from the studio with Ian Abrahams and Stan Collymore reporting from Wembley Stadium. Ian Abrahams also reported on the FA Community Shield and the Johnstone's Paint Trophy Final, Ian Danter reported on the Scottish League Cup Final, Geoff Peters reported on the Scottish Cup Final and the Europa League Final and Tony Incenzo reported on the Conference Premier Play-Off Final.